By the time Anakin got back to the command center of the cruiser, almost everyone had cleared out for the night shift. Commander Sato was on a call with the leadership council. There must have been a lull in the conversation because when Anakin came in, they all turned to see who had entered.

Bail smiled warmly at the Jedi. "Ah, Fulcrum. I had a feeling you would be here sooner or later."

"I was speaking with some of the Ghost crew members," he explained, standing by Sato. "I'm sorry if I've kept you waiting."

"How are they doing?" Sato asked, folding his hands behind his back. "I assume you were talking to the Jedi."

Grinning, Anakin nodded. "They've been through a lot. The older Jedi, Kanan Jarrus, seems to be recovering well from his capture and reported that the Grand Inquisitor is dead."

They all knew how good of news that was. The Grand Inquisitor had been causing trouble a lot longer than what Kanan and Ezra knew. "Good for him!" Mon Mothma praised, nodding approvingly. "Heaven knows the Empire could use a setback these days."

"They will retaliate," Padme reminded her, looking to her husband. "We all know Dooku's patterns. The Emperor will counter this setback quickly. We won't hold an advantage like this for long."

"If we hold it at all," he agreed, crossing his arms. "I suspect that Dooku will have some kind of replacement ready for the Grand Inquisitor. Whoever he sends in his place will get to work quickly."

Bail knew to trust him when it came to Emperor Dooku. Anakin knew him better than anyone else in the Rebellion. "Have you heard about anyone who fits the bill on your missions?"

If only it were that simple. "I've heard about many people, none of which we've seen yet. All of my suspicions are general predictions, not hard and fast intel."

"But we will get some soon, yes?" Sato confirmed. "If there is indeed a replacement, they will show themselves eventually."

"Do you think you can find information about a replacement?" Asked Padme, even though she knew the answer. "I can dig through our intelligence from the Senate, but they tend to censor military movements. I doubt we'll know before you do."

"I know where to start looking," he assured them, "but we can't wait for a replacement to show up. I don't want to hold up our reinforcement runs to the systems in the area, they need the resources we send their way."

Nodding, Mon Mothma took the initiative. "Commander Sato, use the Ghost crew under Captain Syndulla to support our allies in the surrounding systems. Fulcrum, begin your search for this 'replacement'. I don't want to be caught off guard if trouble comes our way."

Both men nodded, and Sato added afterward, "Skywalker can report to my cruiser for the time being. It will be quicker than running all the way to one of our bases, and I imagine the Jedi will want to train together."

"Thank you, Commander," Anakin told him.

"We'll check in again soon," promised Bail. "May the Force be with you."

The call ended and Sato powered down the holotable. To Skywalker, he said, "I'm half surprised it wasn't you who hunted down the Grand Inquisitor. I seem to remember you killing the first one."

He shook his head, brushing a loose strand of hair behind one ear. "The senators were quite clear when I joined the Rebellion: my role is to gather intel. I'd rather fly under the radar as long as possible. If that means avoiding fights with Inquisitors, then I guess I'm staying off the battlefield."

"I can understand why," admitted Sato. "No one can manage to gather the level of intel you've given us over the years. I almost wish you had been able to join sooner."

"You're not the only one, Commander." Skywalker moved towards the door, preparing to excuse himself for the night. "There's a lot of things I wish-"

He was interrupted by a crash and a loud, robotic screech. Skywalker groaned and bolted for the door. "Oh, Artoo, seriously? Excuse me, Commander," he said quickly before rushing out of the command center.

Sato just laughed as the Jedi Knight ran out of the room, yelling for his astromech. He didn't really want to know what R2-D2 was up to, but it was entertaining to watch Skywalker deal with it.

This wasn't the first time Fulcrum had been on board Sato's cruiser. He usually didn't stick around for long, but he had worked with the agent more than once over the past five years. He knew Skywalker was easily one of the most reliable rebels in the organization. He had this habit of having extremely good instincts, especially about bad situations. It was almost frustrating how insightful he could be when giving bad news, but it was definitely for the better. Not to mention his strategy skills had not diminished since the Clone War.

For an intelligence agent, Skywalker had a lot of influence on Rebel leadership. He had earned it over the course of his five years serving the cause, but that didn't stop it from being humbling. He was twice the leader he had been in the Republic Era despite having less than half the rank. Technically Fulcrum answered to commanders, generals, and senators, but practically it was them who sought him out for advice and suggestions. It was rare, if at all, that a superior officer would veto Skywalker. Those who did usually ended up suffering some horrific death that Skywalker had warned them about beforehand.

Nearly everyone in the Rebellion had called him 'General Skywalker' on accident at one point, Sato included. Thankfully Skywalker never mentioned it and didn't try to take advantage of it, but everyone knew that if there was a military problem, Skywalker was the one to go to. Sato was pretty sure that if some emergency befell them and Skywalker disagreed with one of Sato's orders, most of the Rebellion would follow Skywalker. He didn't blame them.

~

Anakin found Artoo picking a fight with one of the droids on board, again. Thankfully the droid was still in one piece when he got there, but he still had to pry his astromech off of the poor thing.

"Artoo, how many times do we have to go over this?" he scolded him, shaking his head as they walked back to where Anakin's ship was docked. "If you stay on the ship, we don't have this issue."

The droid started complaining in binary, explaining that he was trying to find Anakin. A call had come for him.

Rolling his eyes, Anakin insisted, "This is why you have a comlink, buddy. I was on my way, five more minutes and I would have been there anyway."

He beeped that it was the other droid's fault for running into him, and Anakin facepalmed, giving up. "Just use the comlink next time."

They went up the ramp of Anakin's ship, Artoo to retire for the night and Anakin to answer the call. He knew who it was from, he had told Padme that he would call her the next time he got a chance. She probably figured that he was available after the meeting with the leadership council. Encrypting the call, he connected to the frequency and saw his wife appear over the communication console in the cockpit.

"Busy night?" she asked, raising a sleek eyebrow at him. "You're usually quicker to call me first."

"I got talking with our new friends," he explained, leaning forward on his elbows. "Kanan especially, just because we've already met. I thought he might want to see a friendly face after being tortured."

Padme grinned, not really surprised. "Did you have a good conversation?"

He sighed deeply before answering. "We did. Life has taken a toll on him, though. Wish I could have gotten to him sooner."

"You said so yourself, you didn't think it was a good idea to contact him if you didn't have to."

"And I stand by what I said, but that action still had consequences," Anakin insisted. He stared at her eyes through the hologram. "He hasn't had someone like you to help him this whole time."

She had to smile at that. Their nineteenth wedding aniversary had passed not long ago, and they were in year twenty of their marriage. Despite all of the risks their love had created for them, their families, and their children, it had been worth it. It had made surviving in the shadow of the Empire possible, and even bearable.

"Actually, scratch that," Anakin corrected himself, a grin playing across his face. "I'm calling it right now, he and Hera are endgame."

"Are you some kind of Jedi-love expert now?" she teased, rubbing her forehead. "Just because you managed to pull your own affair off doesn't mean you know everything about other's love life."

"Except this time, I'm right," he told her, pointing a finger at the projection. "Just you watch, I know I'm right about this one."

Padme laughed, believing him but so amused at the same time. She didn't see that mischevious twinkle in his eye very often anymore, but she still loved it after all these years. It was the small things in life she had learned to cherish. "Think you can make it home anytime soon?"

He shrugged, not really sure. "Depends on how much progress I make with this whole 'replacement' issue. I'd like to, I'm sure the twins would love to hear about Ezra."

"You'll have to catch them up when you get the chance," she decided, eager for the day to come but just as aware that it wasn't coming anytime soon. "You're more worried about this than you let on earlier."

Anakin didn't deny it. In the grand scheme of things, he knew that either way it would come eventually, but over the past fifteen years he had learned a lot about the Force. Kanan and Ezra had risen out of the shadows, but when Light rises, Darkness will meet it. If the Grand Inquisitor had fallen but the Jedi hadn't, then there would be a counterbalance to the loss in the Dark Side.

"I wouldn't say worried," he confessed, "I just want to be ready, and I want Ezra to be ready. I'm not as worried about Kanan, but Ezra's just begun to know the Force. He hasn't had the chance to grow roots yet."

"You'll keep an eye on him," Padme assured him. "You have a way with teenagers, you've shown that much. If you can tame the twins, you'll do fine with him."

Heh. That was the one part of parenting that Anakin had outshone Padme in: wrangling hormonal teens was right up his alley. "If you go home before I do, let Obi-Wan know. He'll want to hear about it."

"I will," promised Padme. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, angel," he told her, shutting off the communicator. The room went dark as the glow of the hologram shut off, leaving Anakin alone in the cockpit. For a moment, he smiled to himself, looking out the windshield at the hangar his ship was docked in.

He would call home and tell Obi-Wan about Kanan and Ezra himself, but he didn't dare share such sensitive information if he didn't have to. Anakin encrypted the messages he sent home, but there was still a risk that the Empire would tap into the message. Sending home messages at all was a risk and he tried not to do it often, but he didn't want to scare his family into thinking he was dead.

Obi-Wan had struggled greatly with the death of the Jedi Order, more so than Anakin because of his role in it. Recovery had come, slowly and surely, and was still coming. Anakin hoped that news of another survivor in the Rebellion would fuel his hopes, even if Obi-Wan had barely known Kanan during the Clone War. Anyone was better than no one, and maybe the two of them could have helped each other heal. As it was, Kanan was here on the cruiser and Obi-Wan was on Naboo training Anakin's twin children, Luke and Leia.

Walking to his room aboard the ship, Anakin crossed his legs on his bunk and closed his eyes. Unlike most of the time when he meditated, he knew exactly what he wanted to see. He evened out his breathing and slowed his mind, letting the Force envelope him. Concentrating, he opened his eyes and saw what he was looking for.

A very long time ago, he had once had a vision with the first Inquisitor, who in fact was not the Grand Inquisitor. The First Sister had found a Sith holocron and led Anakin to a Jedi holocron, which that night united spontaneously and gave the two of them a vision. Anakin had seen the Balance of the Force for the first time, and it was this same Balance that he sought now. When he opened his eyes, he was back on the starry platform, joined by immitations of the rest of the galaxy's Force-wielders.

It was in this way that Anakin had known about Ezra Bridger before he had ever met him. His presence in the Force had been made known to Anakin long before he had met Kanan. It was in this way that Anakin knew Kanan wasn't the only other survivor from the Jedi Purge. In fact, Anakin had found most of the other survivors, even if he didn't contact them. It was in this way that he knew more Younglings had been born over the past few years, not just Ezra, Luke, and Leia.

The Balance was the reason Anakin was suspicious about Yoda's involvement with Ezra at the Lothal temple. Yoda had dropped off the balance years ago, not long after he had abandoned the Order. Quite a few people had, actually, and it broke Anakin's heart to see so many people lose faith in the Force.

It wasn't as much of a loss as those who had been killed, though. Hundreds of Jedi used to be on the Balance before Order 66, and the handful that were left were but a fraction of what had once been. It was only after having rediscovered this vision-realm that Anakin had realized why: with the fall of Darth Sideous, the Force had become unbalanced. The last master of the Sith Rule of Two had been killed and the successor had refused to take his place. When Palpatine died, it was only a matter of time before the Jedi were forced to account for the disbalance. They had all realized it too late.

On the other side of the balance, the Dark Side, Anakin saw a spot that had just been emptied, the spot where the Grand Inquisitor had stood. For the Rebellion his death was a victory, but in the Force his death was a new variable to factor in. The Balance had always been heavy on the Dark Side ever since Order 66 so a counterbalance was unlikely, but there was always the possibility that a Light Side user would die in retaliation.

When Anakin had this vision the first time, he hadn't had the time to look around him. Now that he had learned to see the Balance nearly on command, he had memorized the faces he saw here. He didn't know the names of every person here or where in the galaxy they were, but he knew of them. There were Jedi who occupied the Light Side of the balance, Sith and Inquisitors who weighed down the Dark Side, and Younglings in the middle who had yet to sway in either direction. Ezra had been in the middle for a long time due to his lack of knowledge about the Force, but from the moment he had met Kanan Anakin had watched as he began to shift to the Light Side of the balance. As soon as the shift had started, Anakin had kept a close eye on him and the Dark Side. Right now, it was much 'heavier' than the Light, but any shift could result in a counter-shift, even when the change brought the system towards equilibrium.

If nothing else, Anakin knew two things about the Force: coincidences did not happen, and actions had consequences. If the Grand Inquisitor had been killed then it was for a reason, and it helped even out the Balance. The Balance didn't like change, though, even productive change. Unfortunately, Anakin had no idea if a counterbalance would take place, or what form it would take.

He had ideas if nothing else. Ideas and experience that were telling him to be ready. He had told Ezra that today was a new beginning, but the beginning of what? As much as Anakin hoped otherwise, he predicted that more challengers were on the way. Retreating out of the Balance, he instead focused on the new spirits on board the cruiser: Ezra and Kanan.

It was time for Anakin to step up as he felt he would have to sooner or later. The Jedi Order may have been destroyed but the Force was still pushing Anakin to learn and grow. He had trained with Obi-Wan and helped him train his children. Since joining the Rebellion he had grown into the Fulcrum position, but he had been complacent for too long. The Force was ready to push him again, and it was pushing him to teach. Neither Kanan nor Ezra were his apprentice, but they were about to be exposed to deeper aspects of the Force than they had experience with. They didn't need a teacher, they needed a mentor, one who had walked the paths they were about to take on.

Not that Anakin had ever seen himself as much of a mentor, but he did want to help them. Maybe this was how.